David Braithwaite
ADDRESSING the shortage of residential land available to buy, and a master plan for the Port of Sale, will be Wellington Shire Council’s strategic land use priorities for the coming financial year.
Following discussions with local developers, real estate agents, planning consultants and key businesses, council will prioritise the Residential Land Stocktake and Port of Sale Masterplan Review.
Consultation highlighted the limited land available for residential development within the shire’s key towns, and the need to update and formally adopt the Port of Sale Masterplan.
The residential stocktake will take place in two stages, the first being a short-term focus on existing residential zoned land, notably in Maffra, and facilitating the Wurruk land release.
Residential lots will be rolled out in the medium term in Maffra, Sale and Stratford, in that order.
A second longer-term stage will focus on the Sale-Wurruk-Longford area, Maffra, Stratford, Heyfield, Rosedale and Yarram.
The Port of Sale Masterplan will focus on redeveloping the east and west banks (including the mooring project and pedestrian upgrade) and developing a plan to activate public spaces.
The plan will also look at strategic Sale sites such as the former Sale police station, connectivity to the new TAFE Gippsland campus and vacant industrial land on York St near Lake Guthridge.
It comes after the federal government announced funding for the Port of Sale west bank upgrade and the redevelopment of the site of the former Sale specialist and high schools on the east bank.
Council has allocated $3.75 million to buy the former Education Department land.
Council will also work on finalising the north Sale developers’ contributions (with costs of infrastructure provision to apportioned), Maffra Structure Plan (focusing on growth needs of the town), shire growth management and economic development strategy, and West Sale industrial land technical studies
